Erupting in 2014, out of Oakland, California, War Cloud has been on a steady path of shredding Northern Californian ear drums. Founded by Alex Wein (vocals, guitars), who hails from Baltimore MD, he wasted zero time in recruiting area musicians after firmly planting his amps in the Bay Area. Looking to create an aural ash cloud of volcanic rock, Alex solidified this crew with Bay Area natives Joaquin Ridgell (drums) and Tony Campos (guitar), and Taylor Roach (bass). War Cloud is a young band but far from wide-eyed innocents. Their musical history drenched in molten riffs across the timeline of heavy metal, the name alone originates from a Wicked Lady song of the same title. With roots encompassing Tony’s tenure in San Francisco’s heavy thrash tinged Hell Fire, Taylor’s melding of hard rock rhythm and old-school groove on bass, and Joaquin pounding his drums as if possessed by the ghost of John Bonham himself. War Cloud has created a new flavor of heavy rock music for those enjoying past meals served up by the likes of Pentagram, UFO, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. This is modern metal sophistication dipped deep in ‘70’s heavy fuzz rock.
Welcome to Austin and SXSW. What are your impressions so far?
Alex: Austin is one of our favorite cities so we’re happy to be here.
Is it your first time playing here as a band?
Alex: Yes!
Tell us about your current project.
Alex: We’re on this tour promoting our debut. We’ll be making an appearance at Doomed and Stoned Fest in Indianapolis later this year. And then maybe make some music videos.
We’re asking all the bands today this question to hear the different opinions: Where do you see Metal (in all it’s incarnations) going in the next few years?
Taylor: What I would like personally for me in this band is more vocals. I’m the bassist but I would like it to be more vocal centered. Before we used to write riffs first and then fit in the lyrics. We might want to take a different approach for this next record and write the songs around a concept.
You don’t see that too much anymore.
Taylor: No you don’t. Like Pink Floyd was known for that. And Opeth which is one of my favorite bands also does that.
As far as genres go, I think Classic Rock is going to make a resurgence . I think the whole Doom craze has kind of peaked and is coming back down. And I think Classic Rock and early Heavy Metal is going to become the next standard.
Tony: I think that if anyone is doing something that is true to themselves as opposed to just what’s popular at the moment, people will see that as authentic. If it is real, your albums will continue to follow that path and not be switching and jumping courses. And your fans will appreciate that. I think that’s what makes bands survive because people will grow with that band.
Joaquin: I feel that as far as genres there are so many divisions within metal. What I would like to see personally is bands (whether it’s Doom, Stoner, Hardcore, Thrash, Punk, etc) to play together. That would let audiences to go, “You know this is not my favorite thing but I see the value in it. They’re playing with a band that I do like. And therefore maybe I should open up my own filters to see what it is about music as a whole that I like”. I’d like to see more crossing over and blending of genres.
Taylor: Our debut album has a good mix of some heavier sounds to just straight up rock but it all works together to be uniquely us. A hard question to answer is, “What is your next album going to be like?.” We won’t know until we get there.
To check out where War Cloud is now, visit them at :
www.facebook.com/warcloudiscoming/ and at:
warcloudiscoming.bandcamp.com
Alex: Austin is one of our favorite cities so we’re happy to be here.
Is it your first time playing here as a band?
Alex: Yes!
Tell us about your current project.
Alex: We’re on this tour promoting our debut. We’ll be making an appearance at Doomed and Stoned Fest in Indianapolis later this year. And then maybe make some music videos.
We’re asking all the bands today this question to hear the different opinions: Where do you see Metal (in all it’s incarnations) going in the next few years?
Taylor: What I would like personally for me in this band is more vocals. I’m the bassist but I would like it to be more vocal centered. Before we used to write riffs first and then fit in the lyrics. We might want to take a different approach for this next record and write the songs around a concept.
You don’t see that too much anymore.
Taylor: No you don’t. Like Pink Floyd was known for that. And Opeth which is one of my favorite bands also does that.
As far as genres go, I think Classic Rock is going to make a resurgence . I think the whole Doom craze has kind of peaked and is coming back down. And I think Classic Rock and early Heavy Metal is going to become the next standard.
Tony: I think that if anyone is doing something that is true to themselves as opposed to just what’s popular at the moment, people will see that as authentic. If it is real, your albums will continue to follow that path and not be switching and jumping courses. And your fans will appreciate that. I think that’s what makes bands survive because people will grow with that band.
Joaquin: I feel that as far as genres there are so many divisions within metal. What I would like to see personally is bands (whether it’s Doom, Stoner, Hardcore, Thrash, Punk, etc) to play together. That would let audiences to go, “You know this is not my favorite thing but I see the value in it. They’re playing with a band that I do like. And therefore maybe I should open up my own filters to see what it is about music as a whole that I like”. I’d like to see more crossing over and blending of genres.
Taylor: Our debut album has a good mix of some heavier sounds to just straight up rock but it all works together to be uniquely us. A hard question to answer is, “What is your next album going to be like?.” We won’t know until we get there.
To check out where War Cloud is now, visit them at :
www.facebook.com/warcloudiscoming/ and at:
warcloudiscoming.bandcamp.com